-- concluding that gold was yoked in an algorithmic short/long trade with the Japanese stock index, only Ferguson sees it as a trade with the Japanese yen.

Ferguson writes: "If you're baffled why 'fundamentals don't seem to matter,' it's because the fundamentals don't matter. There are very few human traders of size left and the computers control everything. In this environment, arcane notions such as supply/demand and company fundamentals are insignificant. The primary drivers to these 'markets' are changes to the USD/JPY."

Ferguson's commentary is headlined "It's All About that Yen" and it's posted at the TF Metals Report here:

Own Allocated -- and Most Importantly --
Segregated Coins and Bars In Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland, remains an extremely safe location for storing coins and bars of the monetary metals. If you do not own segregated physical coins and bars that you can visit, inspect, and take delivery of, you are vulnerable. International diversification remains vital to investors.

Greece likely will default on its debts to the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other bondholders within the next two weeks as a run on Greek banks continues, GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk tells King World News today, adding that this will probably rock the markets. An excerpt from the interview is posted at the KWN blog here:

GoldMoney was established in 2001 by James and Geoff Turk and is safeguarding more than $1.7 billion in metals and currencies. Buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from GoldMoney over the Internet and store them in vaults in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, ­taking advantage of GoldMoney's low storage rates, among the most competitive in the industry. GoldMoney also offers delivery of 100-gram and 1-kilogram gold bars and 1-kilogram silver bars. To learn more, please visit:

In his latest commentary at USAGold, Mike Kosares writes that short-term profits from gold trading may be paltry compared to long-term profits when financial systems come apart, expresses skepticism about the new London gold-fix mechanism, argues that government deficits matter because the public debt can become a serious burden on society, predicts that the Chinese yuan's ascendance will support gold, and maintains that the seemingly slow pace of central bank gold repatriation is not as important as the intent of the repatriation. Kosares' commentary is headlined "Reflections in a Golden Eye" and it's posted at USAGold here:

Europe Silver Bullion is a fast-growing dealer sourcing its products from renowned mints, refiners, and distributors. Because of a legal loophole that will close soon, you can acquire the world's most popular bullion coins free of value-added tax throughout the European Union. You can collect your order in person at our headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, or have it delivered in any of the 28 EU countries.

Europe Silver Bullion is owned and operated by North American and European experts in selling, storing, and transporting precious metals. We have an extensive product inventory of silver, gold, platinum, and palladium, and our network spans the world.

Visit us at www.europesilverbullion.com.
Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has cleared the way for Australia to join the new multi-billion-dollar, China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank but says some issues remain before Australia could consider full membership.

Abbott announced Australia would sign a memorandum of understanding that will allow Australia to be involved in negotiations to set up the $100 billion bank.

"Key matters to be resolved before Australia considers joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank include the bank's board of directors having authority over key investment decisions, and that no one country control the bank," Abbott said in a statement. ...

Direct Ownership and Storage of Precious Metals
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Goldbroker.com is a precious metals investment company that enables investors to own and store gold directly in their own name (no mutualized ownership) in Zurich and Singapore.

Goldbroker's clients are not exposed to any counterparty risks. They own gold and silver in their own names (the ownership certificate cites the name of the investor and serial number of his bars) and they have storage accounts opened in their own name as well. So Goldbroker.com's storage partner knows the exact identity of each investor. Goldbroker.com doesn't store in the name of its clients; rather, Goldbroker's clients store personally. All investors have direct access to their gold and silver bars.

Goldbroker.com was launched in 2011 so that investors would avoid any counterparty risk when investing in physical gold and silver.

Future Money Trends is offering a special 18-page silver mining stock report about how to profit with the monetary and industrial metal, and it comes with a free 1-ounce silver round. Proceeds from the report's sales are shared with the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee to support its efforts to expose manipulation in the monetary metals markets. To learn about this report, please visit:

The volume of gold sold forward by mining companies rose by 103 tonnes last year, the biggest annual increase since 1999, an industry report showed on Friday.

That far outstrips an estimate given late last year of 42-52 tonnes, after Mexican gold and silver miner Fresnillo said it was hedging 47 tonnes of output over five years.

In their quarterly Global Hedge Book Analysis, Societe Generale and GFMS analysts at Thomson Reuters said the bulk of the rise in the global gold hedge book last year was driven by Fresnillo and Russia's Polyus Gold, which announced a major hedging deal in July. ...

USAGold, well known for its Internet site, USAGold.com, offers contemporary bullion coins and bullion-related historic gold coins for delivery to private investors in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is one of the oldest and most respected names in the gold industry, with thousands of clients and an approach to investment that emphasizes guidance and individual needs over high-pressure sales tactics. The firm's zero-complaint record at the Better Business Bureau makes it an ideal match for the conservative, long-term investor looking for a reliable contact in the gold business.

Please call 1-800-869-5115x100 and ask for the trading desk, or visit:

GoldMoney research director Alasdair Macleod writes today that if, as seems likely, central banks can't risk normalizing interest rates, even the U.S. dollar will be pressured in the currency markets, with supportive implications for gold. Macleod's commentary is headlined "Central Banks Paralyzed at the Zero Bound" and it's posted at GoldMoney here:

Bullion Star is a Singapore-registered company with a one-stop bullion shop, showroom, and vault at 45 New Bridge Road in Singapore.

Bullion Star's solution for storing bullion in Singapore is called My Vault Storage. With My Vault Storage you can store bullion in Bullion Star's bullion vault, which is integrated with Bullion Star's shop and showroom, making it a convenient one-stop-shop for precious metals in Singapore.

Customers can buy, store, sell, or request physical withdrawal of their bullion through My Vault Storage® online around the clock. Storage is FREE until 2016 and will have the most competitive rates in the industry thereafter.

Bullion Star market analyst and GATA consultant Koos Jansen today cites indications that the inclusion of the Chinese yuan in the International Monetary Fund's "special drawing rights" basket this year will be connected to China's announcement of a substantial increase in its gold reserves. Jansen notes statements of Chinese policy that gold acquisition is crucial to the country's economic development, and infers from those statements that China's next reserves announcement will claim more gold than Germany, the world's second-largest purported gold holder, but less reserves than the United States, the largest purported gold holder, even as surpassing the United States in gold reserves remains China's long-term objective. Jansen's analysis is headlined "When Will China Disclose Its True Official Gold Reserves and How Much Is It?" and it's posted at Bullion Star here:

Grab your Silver Starter Kit at cost from Money Metals Exchange, the company named "Precious Metals Dealer of the Year" by industry ratings group Bullion.Directory.

Simply go to MoneyMetals.com and type "GATA" in the radio box at the top of the page.

This special silver offer contains 4 ounces of silver coins and rounds in the most popular 1-ounce, half-ounce, and 10th-ounce forms. Claim yours now, because GATA readers get employee pricing and free shipping.

USAWatchdog's Greg Hunter this week interviewed GoldMoney research director Alasdair Macleod about the dangers of the worldwide credit bubble and the stealthy but steady and determined pursuit of gold by the government of China. The interview is headlined "We Are All Trapped" and can be heard at USAWatchdog here:

Own Allocated -- and Most Importantly --
Segregated Coins and Bars In Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland, remains an extremely safe location for storing coins and bars of the monetary metals. If you do not own segregated physical coins and bars that you can visit, inspect, and take delivery of, you are vulnerable. International diversification remains vital to investors.

Hinde Capital in London, in cooperation with the free-market advocates of the Cobden Centre, this week published the first part of an interview with former Bank for International Settlements official William R. White, who in a speech in June 2005 to a BIS conference confessed on behalf of the bank to the international central bank gold price suppression scheme:

White is now chairman of the Economic and Development Review Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and in the Cobden Centre interview he expresses skepticism about "quantitative easing," contends that the biggest problem of the world financial system is excessive debt, argues that much of this debt will have to default and be written off, and laments that free markets are being impaired by central bank interest rate-suppression policies that are propping up uneconomic businesses.

Of course gold price suppression is a prerequisite of interest rate suppression and is just as antithetical to free markets, so it would have been nice if White was questioned about that, especially since his former employer, the BIS, remains the broker for surreptitious central bank interventions in the gold market:

GoldMoney was established in 2001 by James and Geoff Turk and is safeguarding more than $1.7 billion in metals and currencies. Buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from GoldMoney over the Internet and store them in vaults in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, ­taking advantage of GoldMoney's low storage rates, among the most competitive in the industry. GoldMoney also offers delivery of 100-gram and 1-kilogram gold bars and 1-kilogram silver bars. To learn more, please visit:

Bullion Star market analyst and GATA consultant Koos Jansen tonight calls attention to a segment of the "Business Middle East" program on the French-based Euronews television network that this week asked whether gold market manipulation would diminish under the new gold price-fixing mechanism in London. Looks like gold market manipulation can get into the mainstream financial news media ... at least in Arabic:

Europe Silver Bullion is a fast-growing dealer sourcing its products from renowned mints, refiners, and distributors. Because of a legal loophole that will close soon, you can acquire the world's most popular bullion coins free of value-added tax throughout the European Union. You can collect your order in person at our headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, or have it delivered in any of the 28 EU countries.

Europe Silver Bullion is owned and operated by North American and European experts in selling, storing, and transporting precious metals. We have an extensive product inventory of silver, gold, platinum, and palladium, and our network spans the world.

Visit us at www.europesilverbullion.com.
Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference:

Yesterday's concentration on gold at the spectacular Mines and Money Hong Kong conference may have inadvertently proved GATA's longstanding contention that gold market manipulation simply can't be discussed in polite company almost anywhere in the world.

For at the outset of a panel discussion described as a debate about the direction of the gold price, its moderator, Rod Whyte, a longtime gold advocate and member of the Board of Directors of Australia-based business information provider Aspermont Ltd., announced that the panelists had agreed that gold market manipulation would not be discussed because the topic is "too inflammatory."

Since Whyte has expressed support for GATA at other venues, the calculated avoidance of the manipulation issue would seem to have been someone else's idea. In any case the panel included two members who could not have been expected to want to discuss the issue: Philip Klapwijk, formerly an analyst for Gold Fields Mineral Services, now managing director of Precious Metals Insights Ltd. in Hong Kong, and Albert Cheng, Far East managing director for the World Gold Council.

... Dispatch continues below ...

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Direct Ownership and Storage of Precious Metals
Outside the Banking System in Zurich and Singapore

Goldbroker.com is a precious metals investment company that enables investors to own and store gold directly in their own name (no mutualized ownership) in Zurich and Singapore.

Goldbroker's clients are not exposed to any counterparty risks. They own gold and silver in their own names (the ownership certificate cites the name of the investor and serial number of his bars) and they have storage accounts opened in their own name as well. So Goldbroker.com's storage partner knows the exact identity of each investor. Goldbroker.com doesn't store in the name of its clients; rather, Goldbroker's clients store personally. All investors have direct access to their gold and silver bars.

Goldbroker.com was launched in 2011 so that investors would avoid any counterparty risk when investing in physical gold and silver.

https://www.goldbroker.com/
While Klapwijk predicted that the price of gold will fall substantially, predictions for the gold price are of no particular concern to GATA. We recognize that as long as the futures markets are operating, central banks can drive the price down to zero or up to infinity.

But your secretary/treasurer was in the audience and would have liked to ask Klapwijk and Cheng a few questions.

For example:

-- Was the Banque de France's director of market operations, Alexandre Gautier, telling the truth when he told the London Bullion Market Association meeting in Rome in September 2013, that the bank is secretly trading gold for its own account and the accounts of other central banks "nearly on a daily basis"? (See: http://www.gata.org/node/13373.)

-- Is the Bank for International Settlements telling the truth when it maintains in its annual report that it does the same sort of secret trading on behalf of its member central banks, trading not only gold itself but also gold futures, options, and other derivatives? (See: http://www.gata.org/node/12717.)

-- Is the BIS sincere when it advertises that it undertakes secret interventions in the gold market for its members? (See http://www.gata.org/node/11012.)

-- If these central banks are indeed doing so much secret trading in the gold market, what are their objectives and might this secret trading manipulate the market and thereby deceive and cheat investors?

-- And for the World Gold Council's Cheng in particular: In its various analyses of the gold market, does the World Gold Council ever consider this secret trading by central banks, and does the council have any opinion about it?

Unfortunately the program did not permit questions.

An hour later your secretary/treasurer began his own presentation by noting the gold debate panel's determination that discussion of market manipulation is "too inflammatory" to be discussed and reminding the audience that they had been warned and might want to leave so as to avoid the ensuing unpleasantness. It was gratifying that no one walked out, though of course Klapwijk and Cheng had not stuck around.

Your secretary/treasurer said that GATA has spent 15 years collecting the documentation of largely surreptitious manipulation of the gold market by central banks and clamoring and litigating against it --

-- and that the presentation of this documentation had served mainly to get GATA disparaged as "conspiracy theorists."

But your secretary/treasurer added that there is such a thing as conspiracy fact -- as when the European Central Bank gathers its members secretly every few years to determine their policy in the gold market and then announces that this policy indeed has been determined in secret and that it will continue to be determined in secret and executed in secret as well:

It is also conspiracy fact when the G-10 Gold and Foreign Exchange Committee, representing the treasury departments and central banks of the industrial world, undertakes the same sort of secret meetings for policy formation and execution --

Indeed, insofar as it operates largely in secret much of the time, government itself is by definition one big conspiracy.

Any serious analysis of the gold market, your secretary/treasurer said, must begin with these questions:

-- Are central banks in the gold market largely surreptitiously or not?

-- If central banks are in the gold market largely surreptitiously, is it just for fun -- for example, to see which central bank's trading desk can make the most money by cheating the most investors -- or is it for policy purposes?

Then your secretary/treasurer presented as many documents as the remainder of his 20 minutes allowed. Fortunately this allowed citation of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents indicating that central banks are secretly trading all major U.S. futures markets and contracts:

Grateful as he was to be allowed to participate again at the Hong Kong conference, your secretary/treasurer would be even more grateful to participate in any forum at which anyone of any standing in the gold market who dismisses complaints of gold market manipulation as "conspiracy theory" would be prepared to address the questions and documents cited here.

Of course it would be ideal if anyone in authority in government anywhere would attend a forum for addressing these questions and documents.

Yes, these questions and documents may be considered inflammatory, but only insofar as the world's financial system has become a cosmic fraud that deserves to go up in flames.

The Turkish mint gets little attention, Bullion Star market analyst and GATA consultant Koos Jansen writes today, but it is among the biggest in the world and in some recent years has produced more gold coins than the U.S. mint. Jansen's report is headlined "The Largest Gold Mints in the World" and it's posted at Bullion Star here:

Future Money Trends is offering a special 18-page silver mining stock report about how to profit with the monetary and industrial metal, and it comes with a free 1-ounce silver round. Proceeds from the report's sales are shared with the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee to support its efforts to expose manipulation in the monetary metals markets. To learn about this report, please visit:

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Telegraph, London
Thursday, March 25, 2015

The United States has handled its economic diplomacy with shocking myopia.

The US Treasury's attempt to cripple the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank before it gets off the ground is clearly intended to head off China's ascendancy as a rival financial superpower, whatever the faux-pieties from Washington about standards of "governance."

Such a policy is misguided at every level, evidence of what can go wrong when a lame-duck president defers to posturing amateurs in Congress on delicate matters of global geostrategy.

Washington has enraged Britain by trying to browbeat Downing Street into boycotting the project. It has forced allies and friendly countries across the Far East to make a fatal choice between the US and China that none wished to make, and has ended up losing almost everybody. Germany, France, and Italy are joining. Australia and South Korea may follow soon.

The new bank is exactly what the world needs. China must recycle its trade surpluses and its $3.8 trillion reserves by one means or another. It can buy US Treasuries, Bunds, or Gilts, perpetuating a global bond bubble. It can make surgical investments abroad to acquire technology for its champions and pursue a narrow national interest.

Or it can recycle the money in concert with other members of the bank -- with a start-up capital of $50 billion -- for sewage projects, clean energy, ports, roads, and railways in Asia, helping to plug a $700 billion shortfall in infrastructure investment that the World Bank is too small to cover and which is of collective benefit to the world. ...

USAGold, well known for its Internet site, USAGold.com, offers contemporary bullion coins and bullion-related historic gold coins for delivery to private investors in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is one of the oldest and most respected names in the gold industry, with thousands of clients and an approach to investment that emphasizes guidance and individual needs over high-pressure sales tactics. The firm's zero-complaint record at the Better Business Bureau makes it an ideal match for the conservative, long-term investor looking for a reliable contact in the gold business.

Please call 1-800-869-5115x100 and ask for the trading desk, or visit:

GoldCore's Mark O'Byrne writes today that the gold-storage facilities HSBC is closing are essentially safe-deposit boxes rather than vaults. O'Byrne adds that gold owners are probably better off not storing their gold with a bank anyway. His commentary is posted at GoldCore here:

Bullion Star is a Singapore-registered company with a one-stop bullion shop, showroom, and vault at 45 New Bridge Road in Singapore.

Bullion Star's solution for storing bullion in Singapore is called My Vault Storage. With My Vault Storage you can store bullion in Bullion Star's bullion vault, which is integrated with Bullion Star's shop and showroom, making it a convenient one-stop-shop for precious metals in Singapore.

Customers can buy, store, sell, or request physical withdrawal of their bullion through My Vault Storage® online around the clock. Storage is FREE until 2016 and will have the most competitive rates in the industry thereafter.

Grab your Silver Starter Kit at cost from Money Metals Exchange, the company named "Precious Metals Dealer of the Year" by industry ratings group Bullion.Directory.

Simply go to MoneyMetals.com and type "GATA" in the radio box at the top of the page.

This special silver offer contains 4 ounces of silver coins and rounds in the most popular 1-ounce, half-ounce, and 10th-ounce forms. Claim yours now, because GATA readers get employee pricing and free shipping.

The Shanghai International Gold Exchange, Bullion Star market analyst and GATA consultant Koos Jansen writes today, very likely has been established in part to facilitate the inclusion of China's yuan and gold into the "special drawing rights" currency of the International Monetary Fund. Jansen's analysis is posted at Bullion Star here:

Own Allocated -- and Most Importantly --
Segregated Coins and Bars In Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland, remains an extremely safe location for storing coins and bars of the monetary metals. If you do not own segregated physical coins and bars that you can visit, inspect, and take delivery of, you are vulnerable. International diversification remains vital to investors.

BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has asked the head of the International Monetary Fund to include China's yuan currency in its special drawing rights basket, state news agency Xinhua said.

"China will speed up the basic convertibility of yuan on the capital account and provide more facility for domestic individual cross-border investment and foreign institutional investment in China's capital market," Xinhua paraphrased Li as telling IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, in a report late Monday.

Li added that "China hoped to, through the SDR, play an active role in the international cooperation to maintain financial stability and promote the further opening of China's capital market and financial area," the report said. ...

China's yuan at some point would be incorporated in the SDR currency basket, Lagarde said on Friday. ...

GoldMoney was established in 2001 by James and Geoff Turk and is safeguarding more than $1.7 billion in metals and currencies. Buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from GoldMoney over the Internet and store them in vaults in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, ­taking advantage of GoldMoney's low storage rates, among the most competitive in the industry. GoldMoney also offers delivery of 100-gram and 1-kilogram gold bars and 1-kilogram silver bars. To learn more, please visit:

Nevsun Resources Ltd. is describing an attack on its Bisha mine in Eritrea as an "act of vandalism," an account that contrasts starkly with African media reports saying the mine was bombed by Ethiopan fighter jets.

In a statement released Sunday, Nevsun said vandals caused minor damage to the base of a tailings thickener at the mine during the night shift on Friday, releasing water into the plant area.

But the Ethiopian news site Tigrai Online said it had confirmed a report that the Ethiopian air force bombed the mine on Friday. Sudanese newspaper Al-Sahafa was the first to report that the attack was a military operation from Ethiopia.

"The Bisha gold mine, which is about 150 kilometers from the city of Asmara, is on fire and huge fire and smoke can be seen from far away," the reports claimed. ...

A source close to Nevsun said the company is not sure what happened and isn't ruling out any possibilities until it completes an investigation. Nevsun's statement said the company has implemented additional safety precautions and no employees were harmed. ...

Europe Silver Bullion is a fast-growing dealer sourcing its products from renowned mints, refiners, and distributors. Because of a legal loophole that will close soon, you can acquire the world's most popular bullion coins free of value-added tax throughout the European Union. You can collect your order in person at our headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, or have it delivered in any of the 28 EU countries.

Europe Silver Bullion is owned and operated by North American and European experts in selling, storing, and transporting precious metals. We have an extensive product inventory of silver, gold, platinum, and palladium, and our network spans the world.

Visit us at www.europesilverbullion.com.
Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference:

Direct Ownership and Storage of Precious Metals
Outside the Banking System in Zurich and Singapore

Goldbroker.com is a precious metals investment company that enables investors to own and store gold directly in their own name (no mutualized ownership) in Zurich and Singapore.

Goldbroker's clients are not exposed to any counterparty risks. They own gold and silver in their own names (the ownership certificate cites the name of the investor and serial number of his bars) and they have storage accounts opened in their own name as well. So Goldbroker.com's storage partner knows the exact identity of each investor. Goldbroker.com doesn't store in the name of its clients; rather, Goldbroker's clients store personally. All investors have direct access to their gold and silver bars.

Goldbroker.com was launched in 2011 so that investors would avoid any counterparty risk when investing in physical gold and silver.